Sunday Devotion: Waiting for "The End"

Janet Rubin



I pulled my daughters’ door shut and heaved a sigh of relief. It had been one of those non-stop days—driving three kids in separate directions, shopping, banking, meetings. Far too much for one 24-hour period, but somehow I’d gotten it all done. I gave myself a mental pat on the back, promising myself that The Reward (collapsing into bed with a great book) was only moments away. All that was left to do was let the dogs out…

Moments later, the putrid stench of skunk permeated the house. I tried telling myself that the odor was from somewhere nearby. And had nothing to do with my dogs. Unfortunately, my optimistic thinking didn’t match the ugly reality: they’d been sprayed. It looked like my book would have to wait.

My husband was conveniently at work (good for him), so it was up to me to restore breathable air to our home. Getting two large Labradors to stand still outside while I hosed them down in the dark seemed unlikely. Persuading them to leap over the lip of my tall claw foot tub proved hopeless; hoisting them over impossible. I went with the only remaining choice—taking them into my walk-in shower (which I’d scrubbed earlier that day.)

I took them in one at a time, me in my clothes and them fighting to get away. I had to straddle each beast and hang on for dear life, squirting with Palmolive, then working his stinking fur into a lather. Great gobs of black fur piled in the drain, so much that I had to toss the wads out onto the bathroom floor every other minute. By the time I’d finished scrubbing them down and toweling them off, my white bathroom was covered in black hair. It would take a writer with far greater talent than I possess to adequately describe to you the amount of hair we’re talking about. If I’d had the forethought, I’d have taken a picture; I should have known I’d write about it!

My white tile floor had grown a black shag rug. The walls and floor of my shower, plus the curtain were also black. Even me—my arms, legs, palms, and clothes were so coated in fur that I looked like something that hadn’t quite evolved all the way.

It was midnight before my dogs, my bathroom, and I were clean and dry. Surely now I deserved to flop with a book? One look at my naked mattress and I almost cried. How could I have forgotten that I’d stripped the bed down that morning? I made up the bed and crawled in. With no energy left for reading, I flipped off the light. I slipped off to sleep thinking, with amazement, that the dogs—laying on the floor by my bed—did not actually smell bad anymore. Most of the skunk spray must have been on the hair that had come out in the washing!

When I tucked my girls in that night, I had thought my work was done. I was tired of that day and ready for it to end. Sometimes we feel that way when we finish writing a novel. We’ve spent months, maybe even years writing the story. We’ve edited and re-written. We want to type, “The End,” and move on. It certainly feels like we’ve worked hard enough. But sometimes we have to do more. Edit one more time, cut things away, scrub it even more so it will shine. And even if we feel we don’t have the energy, we have to do it before we can rest. With our last bit of strength, we go over it again. The wordiness, misspellings, and commas fall away like shedding dog hair, until our stories smell sweeter.

As we walk with God, He promises to conform us to the image of His Son (Romans 8:29). And yes, that takes some major editing! We, His creation, were defiled by an entity far nastier than a skunk. But God loves us still and wants to restore us to the way we were intended to be. We are His story, and we will be made perfect in Him. In order for us to be like Jesus, we must decrease and He must increase. Our sinful self needs to be cut away and His spirit infused. We must be washed in the blood until the stench of sin ceases. Praise God that He is the One who does the work and not we ourselves! And He will not grow weary in His task. He promises to finish the job: Philippians 1:6 “being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.”

Lord, Thank You that You don’t give up on us or grow too tired of us to finish Your work in our lives. We need Your cleansing, perfecting touch in our lives. Cut what You will. Purge our sin, renew our minds, conform our will to Yours. Please give us strength to persevere and strive for excellence in our lives and in our writing. Amen